President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela has taken steps to pull out of the global forum most used to settle investor disputes, where Caracas faces more than $40 billion in claims for nationalized properties.

Documents show that Mr. Chávez, shown in August, is moving to avoid financial sanctions from abroad.

Venezuelan officials have drawn up plans, at Mr. Chávez’s order, to withdraw from the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, a unit of the World Bank in Washington, according to recent documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
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Venezuela’s withdrawal from the ICSID also would fit well the nationalistic bent that has led Mr. Chávez to expropriate 988 companies, 401 so far this year, according to Conindustria, a Venezuela industry chamber.

Here are the claims they’re talking about,

The WSJ quotes Dietmar W. Prager, a lawyer with the New York firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP who has represented investors with ICSID disputes with Venezuela, in what may be the understatement of the week,

A withdrawal would send an unfriendly signal about Venezuela’s policy towards foreign investment